Sidelines: Oh those Phillies

Baseball:
It's been two weeks since I've mentioned the Phillies. They were looking good and were in first place for a short time. I kept hoping things would stay the same, but they're looking worse with each passing game. They are now in second place behind the Atlanta Braves by four games. No one on the team has been playing up to their potential and they certainly aren't scoring runs. The banged up relief pitching staff certainly hasn't done anything to help stem the tide of losses.

Last year the Phillies completely fell apart in the second half of the season. I hope they can come around and stop this free fall, at least enough to make the month of September interesting. It would be the first time in six years, but I'm not holding my breath.

Golf:
With better news, Gary Woodland won the U.S. Open for his first major victory this past Sunday. Gary is an extremely athletic 35-year-old from Kansas. He played some college basketball, but then decided he probably had a better chance to stay in sports as a professional golfer.

That was a great decision. He was able to win this event by a solid three shots over defending champion Brooks Koepka. Brooks did a great job defending his Championship. He was going into the fourth round and was trailing by four, but he came out firing and birdied four of the first five holes. I thought he was going to pull off the three peat for a minute there, but he just ran out of the gas.

You can never tell how Tiger Woods is going to play from week to week. At this U.S. Open he didn't seem to be very strong or moving well. I may be wrong and I hope I am, but I think his back is bothering him. He tied for 21st place with a good final round 69. Phil Mickelson made the cut, but fell apart in the last two rounds.

This wasn’t your typical U.S. Open score to win the event. The winning total was 13 under par. The Thursday through Sunday weather was cloudy and cold with almost no wind on the California coastline which is the main reason the scores were so low. I’m always happy when an American wins one of our major tournaments. I will be happy next year because the 120th Open tournament will be back in the Eastern time zone in New York at Winged Foot Golf Club.

Basketball:
The Toronto Raptors pulled off the big upset winning the NBA Championship over the Golden State Warriors in 6 games. I kind of feel bad for the Raptors players because they have to hear that they won the championship only because of all the injuries Golden State had during the playoffs. My view is that you only have to beat the players on the floor.

The NBA draft is this week. I wish they would push it back a little bit and wait until July. It takes forever for the basketball season to end as it is. This draft is too soon after the playoffs.

See you on the sidelines!